Chapter 11
Tony woke up to a dark lab, only managing to spot a character banging on his door. "Steve?" he asked, and remembered that the other man couldn't hear him.
"J, open the communication channel. Steve?" he asked.
"It's Harley, but I'll take it as a compliment." mumbled the teenager. "Sorry, H. Open the door, J."
The door slid to the side in a 'woosh' sound, and Tony tried to understand why Harley came, unable to identify any feelings on his face because of the darkness.
"JARVIS, lights." he ordered, and Harley laughed. "The lights are already on, Sir." answered the british AI. "But... I can't see." mumbled Tony, panic rising in his chest, and Harley laughed again. "Yeah, Mechanic. Getting old, aren't we?" Tony frowned and looked down on his body, moving his fingers in front of his face.
He saw nothing.
"I can't see. It's serious. I'm serious. I can't see!" he shouted, trying to move towards Harley's character. He heard Harley typing and Harley suddenly was closer, putting a hand around his waist, helping him stablize. "SHIELD? I have an emergency. It's not a prank! What do you mean, how I got this number? I-" "Oh, give me that." Tony mumbled and snatched the phone in the second try from Harley's hand.
"Now you listen to me, kiddo. I'm Tony motherfucker Stark. And when I call to SHIELD, it's about harassing Fury, or some kind of a small situation like saving lives. And I'm not in the mood for harassing, so you better send here some medical help and tell Harley that you're sorry. And I want it here, yesterday."
Three minutes after, Harley got his apology and Tony was lying on his bed, a medical team poking needles into his arms, full of drugs and what-so-ever.
Tony allowed himself to settle back, and soon he was asleep again, as the world became just a little bit darker.
***
A soft shake of his shoulder woke him up.
"You have visitors, Tony." he heard Natasha's voice. "Reschedule for not now." Tony mumbled into his pillow, and covered his head with his blanket. "I should be more clear- you have visitors, now." she repeated, and Tony burried himself even more inside the blanket.
"You know, English may not be my first language, but I think I'm eloquent enough for you to understand." Tony felt cold hands digging beneath his blanket, and before he could resist, Natasha quickly pulled the blanket. Tony's body rolled with the motion, just to fall on the cold floor, wearing only a pair of boxers that didn't leave much place for imagination. What a wonderful morning.
"Ew, Stark!" he heard Clint's voice. His eyes could now spot the other character in the room. "You should at least warn me, you know!" "Grow up, Barton." he mumbled back. "I have a beautiful ass, and you know it." he felt two pairs of strong hands on his body, lifting him up. The blond spy pushed a shirt over his head, and lifted him from his armpits while the widow dressed him with his pants.
"I'm a big boy, you know. I can do it on my own." he said. "I'm just kinda blind, not paralyzed."
He heard the click of heels and heavy boots hitting the floor, followed by the sound of normal shoes. "Even when you were alright you couldn't do it." sneered a very familiar voice.
"Rhodey!" Tony shouted and jumped towards the voice source, hugging him tight. "You're not Rhodey." he mumbled into the chest of unknown person. "Wait! Don't tell me." he began touching the body, trying to figure out who is he. "Not a woman." he raised his hands, touching the shoulders. "Not a super mascular super soilder."
"Wait, who just entered the room?" he asked. "Mrs. and Mr. Carter-Sousa, Mr. Barton, Mrs. Romanov, Mr. Fury, Mrs. Potts, Mr. Rhodes, myself and yourself. Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers are in the way." answered Jarvis.
he put his hand on the stranger's head.
bald head.
"Oh, god." he growned. "Please tell me I haven't just gotten into a second base with Nick Fury." "You haven't got into a second base with Nick Fury." answered the AI and Rhodey together, and Tony could hear the smile on Rhodey's lips. "Shut up!" he protested, and a sound of quicker steps filled the room.
"Who said second base with Nick Fury?" asked Howard, who probably just stepped into the room. "Nick!" he shouted in surprise, and Fury left Tony in order turned around. A small noise was heard, Howard hugging both of them tight. "Didn't knew you knew my son!" he heard a small chuckle from Rhodey. "Knowing Tony isn't something to be proud of."
Tony wanted to protest, but finding Pepper was more important right now. He sniffed the air. "Don't move." he ordered, and began walking around the room, until finding the source of the smell.
"I should buy you a thousand more bottles of this crap." he mumbled and rested his head on Pepper's shoulder.
He heard Pepper laugh, but the body where he rested his head wasn't moving.
"...Oh, crap. I'm wrong again, ain't I?" he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Well, I did used Pepper's perfume this morning, so you were close." said Peggy Carter, and Tony felt like this day will be his death.
"Alright, that's enough." ordered Pepper, and a character stepped closer to Tony. "Can someone explain me why Tony's half blind?" this time, he felt Pepper's hand wrapping around him, pulling him closer.
There was an uncomfortable cough from the edge of the room. Howard, of course. "I think I can." answered Steve Rogers.
Well, Tony always sucked at the guessing games.
"Spit it, Rogers." Pepper ordered coldly, and the character- Steve- rose from its sit.
"In the night before I got my abilities, I had a very long talk with Proffesor Erskine about my superpowers. I had two more, with Peggy and Howard." he sighed. "From what I've understood, I became strong because of the Vitta rays. But 70 years later, when I've talked to Bruce, he told me that Vitta rays were really dangerous. So like Marie Curie- yes, Tony, I know who she is-" Tony lowered his eyebrow back, a smirk on his face. "Maybe there was something wrong about the Vitta rays, and somehow it passed to Tony."
Howard lifted Tony's chin, looking into his eyes. "Actually, its an interesting idea. If his body had developed some kind of dependence in the Vitta rays..."
Tony nodded slowly. "But he hasn't been around Vitta rays most of his life." mentioned Pepper. "And that doesn't explain why now."
"Well, actually..." Tony mumbled, shifting his stance. "I lived for 6 years, every day meeting Vitta rays." Howard had the decency to leave his chin. "My body probably had some changes around. From this day forward, I almost had no touch with Vitta rays- until Cap showed up, of course." Tony felt like his legs were about to collapse, and somehow managed to sit on the edge of his bed. "When we've met I'd always felt kind of a... weakness, but I considered it as nervousness. After the fight with Loki, all of you moved to my tower, so I had to deal with Vitta rays regulary again, but I felt completly normal. Until now. So we must've somehow changed something. Something big, that happenned right in the moment when I became blind, and prevented me from getting exposed to Vitta rays. Something... probably about Steve. That prevented me from seeing Vitta rays until... boom! All of you Vitta-rays-sources showed up at once, which effected my eyes."
"Well, you did had genetic predisposition for glasses." mentioned Pepper. "Almost all of your family were needing glasses. Maybe the exposure to the Vitta rays improved your sight in the first time, and almost completly destroyed it in the second time."
Everything was reasonable, and that was scaring the shit out of Tony.
"Wait." Daniel said. "But if no one remembers that you were blind, that means it must've passed pretty fast, isn't it? I mean, you can't have it from your childhood, or else we'll all remember?"
Tony nodded. "Correct. So we're probably fixing that problem in the future." he frowned.
"Jesus christ, it's getting so complicated." mumbled Clint, and Tony smirked. "Only for bird-brains like you." he felt Pepper stiffening next to him. "I don't like it." she whispered at him. "I don't like them. They've hurted you."
Tony didn't have anything to answer, so he stayed quiet.
"HolY FUCK!" shouted suddenly Clint, making everyone jump at their place. "I'm a genius! Nat, do you remember the what's-his-name?" Tony was pretty sure she was aiming one of her glares at Clint.
"Who?"
"Oh, come on, that Doctor! The one that dealt with time and things!"
Natasha suddenly snapped her fingers. "Doctor Strange. We can, maybe, get his help..."
"I'm sorry, but I think that even those of us who didn't move 60 years forward in time missed something." Jarvis mentioned, and Tony nodded. "Who is Doctor Strange exactly?" he asked.
"Doctor Strange is the man who saved the world from being eaten by a gaint space monster." said Fury. "He can... fold time, space and universe. He can do magic and tricksters, making the world seem completly different."
"So... he's basically Loki in a human form." Tony said out loud what probably everyone were thinking.
Well, except the senior-citizens-squad.
"Yup." answered Natasha. "And we can maybe ask for his help to undo what's wrong, if we'll know what's wrong."
"So we're back in the starting position." said Peggy. "We need to find out what's wrong."
The team set in silence for a few minutes.
"Where are the kids, Wilson and Maximoff?" asked Tony, suddenly. "Sam is taking care of the kids, and Wanda is at her room, probably waking up with a cruel headache." said Natasha, and Tony chuckled quietly. "She didn't want to listen, didn't she?" "Indeed."
Steve, surprisnigly, didn't reply, which sent the team into another few minutes of silence.
Big shoes were hitting the ground, almost like someone was trying to stamp which each of his steps.
"I HAVE PLEASENT NEWS, FRIENDS, AND PRESENTS FOR THE MAN OF IRON!" roared Thor. "BEHOLD!" Tony saw the blurry, black character walking towards him, and only when Thor almost reached him he noticed the many boxes in his hands. "POP TARTS! AND FLOWERS FROM BELOVED LADY JANE!" Thor placed the gifts with surprising gentle, and Tony grinned while looking at the pile built out of Pop Tarts boxes.
"ARE YOU OKAY, MAN OF IRON?" the god asked, gripping Tony's shoulder, and Tony shrinked a little bit. His hearing became much more sensitive.
"For the sake of our hearing, Mister, please stop shouting." said Jarvis loud enough for everyone to hear. "WHO ARE THE-" he stopped talking for a second. "Who are the new friends?" he asked, curious.
"They're time travelers." explained Steve, and Tony felt the grip on his shoulder getting tighter. "One of Loki's tricks?" he asked, surprised. "What a strange event, almost like the winds of fate themselves created it! Just yesterday WE ARRESTED LOKI!" Tony shrinked again, and Thor patted his shoulder twice.
"I'm sorry, Anthony. Sometimes it's hard to control my voice levels." Tony nodded, but the sentence before sticked in his mind.
"Wait, Loki was arrested?"
"Indeed!"
Tony paled, and rested his head between his arms. "So here's our big event." Clint mumbled. "Which means..." "In order to get Tony's eyes well again, we need to prevent Loki from getting arrested." completed Steve. "There's no chance it's just a coincidence?" he asked, although he already knew the answer. "No." Tony groaned. "It's perfect. Loki probably has a hand in the time-travel thing. Fits like a glove- a plan so complicated to set himself free."
Natasha sighed. "If we won't set Loki free, we won't be able to do time travel- Doctor Strange can turn time back only where he stands, which means we'll have to somehow invent a device, which won't be so accurate. A year over here or there, and Tony won't have the Vitta source in his childhood. We have to get them back, or Tony's eyes today will keep being blurry, from being over-exposed to the rays. Bottomline: we have to get Loki."
Daniel broke the tensed silence. "Who is Loki?"
"Some godish nutcase from outer space." answered Tony shortly.
"Oh."
Silence took over the room for another few minutes.
"Hello, Strange?" sighed the director of SHIELD, his voice stiffened. "I got a situation."